Later tonight, Batavia's City Council will vote to cease its funding and operation of the county-wide ambulance service managed by the city fire department. Discussion among members of Council was had at a recent budget meeting, and Council President Charlie Mallow has assured us that they are essentially all in agreement and that tonight's vote is merely the formal act on what has already been decided.
Seventeen of the 18 other municipalities in the county that benefit from the ambulance service have expressed their desire to continue with the city-run service. So we may see a few speakers at tonight's meeting. The vote will follow the Council's conference meeting, which begins at 7:00pm at City Hall.
Should the city scrap its ambulance service?( surveys)
Philip, I have voted in your
Philip,
I have voted in your polls before, but do you have anyway of knowing if a person votes more than once?
John: Repeated votes are
John: Repeated votes are blocked. If you try to do so, you should notice the comment from the poll: "Thank you, we have already counted your vote."
Thanks for the fast answer.
Thanks for the fast answer.
Phil, I know this isn't an
Phil,
I know this isn't an official poll, but given the current interest in the issue, is there a chance you could bump this post?
Russ: By bump, do you mean
Russ: By bump, do you mean move it up higher on the page?
If so, can't say I've ever done that. I may have to defer to Howard on this one. I know that we do have a more recent post from last night's Council meeting when this vote went through and the city officially ended its run as ambulance provider.
By the way, for folks looking for figures on savings, Joanne Beck got some numbers from Molino. She writes in her most recent article:
"Molino’s amended ambulance budget for 2009-10 reflects some of the savings from not having the service this fall. Personnel services will drop from $1.05 million to $526,920, overtime from $320,000 to $160,000, equipment from $97,400 to $9,000 and hospital/medical insurance from $268,525 to $163,802."
Another question necessarily follows this. Obviously, the area will need another ambulance service to fill the void. Will the costs to help pay for that — via municipal or county taxes — offset the money gained back from this move?
Phil, "Bump" as in put
Phil,
"Bump" as in put higher on the page, but I admit to a purely selfish interest because I'm lazy and don't want to keep scrolling down. But, I can just click on the comments now.